Permission to be Elated: Granted

By Artistry

Sidney Crosby took the ice this morning for the first time in months, the Twitter-verse exploded, and thousands of Penguins fans shouted, pounded their desks, or otherwise acted inappropriately in the workplace.  No sooner had this news sunk in though, that hockey observers and even Crosby himself started telling everybody to rein in the excitement.  Sid has "no clue" if he'll be back in the lineup this year.  He may experience concussion symptoms again as early as this afternoon, in which case he'll have to scale things back.  Today was a positive step, but in the end, it doesn't mean much.  This is a process.  Fair enough.  We're going to be holding our collective breath over Crosby's health for the foreseeable future.  That's understood.  But with everything the fan base has had to endure these last few months, it's OK to be happy.  Exhale.  Pet a dog.  Smile at a stranger.  Listen to a "Bachelor" podcast.  We don't know what tomorrow will bring, but for today, at least, there is hope it will bring a Crosby-Neal-Kunitz line. 

Turn That Frown Upside Down.

A few thoughts on the weekend split against Montreal (3-0 loss) and Edmonton (5-1 win):

- Kris Letang is wearing down.  Saturday's game might have been his worst was flat out his worst of the season.  He rebounded on Sunday before taking a vicious high hit from Gilbert Brule, in a game where the Pens only dressed five defenseman.  Might be a good idea to go with six from here on out.  Granted, the price was surely too high, but it would have been nice if Ray Shero had picked up an extra body on D at the deadline.  Letang, Paul Martin, and Zybnek Michalek are all vastly overworked right now.

- I really cannot emphasize enough how much I hate the Montreal Canadiens.  I hate Mike Cammalleri and his smile.  I hate P.K. Subban.  I hate the Montreal fans.  I hate that stanchion they have in their rink.  I hate their Mario Lemieux bandwagon-riding owner.  But more than anything, I don't want to see them in the playoffs.

- James Neal sure does create a lot of goal mouth scoring chances.  He might benefit from playing with guys who crash the net a bit more than Letestu and Kovalev.

- The Penguins power play might benefit from kidnapping Edmonton's Linus Omark.  Not that Mike Rupp isn't dangerous when setting up shop on the half-boards.  Shades of Mario.

Here's the video of Sid's post-skate Q&A with reporters: